


Niki's Unfinished Symphony

by Biforbooks



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), mcyt
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergence, DSMP, Dream SMP Roleplay - Freeform, Gen, Mentioned Ghost Wilbur Soot, Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29229624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Biforbooks/pseuds/Biforbooks
Summary: After Niki is confronted by the ghost of Wilbur Soot, she sets on a journey to confront his broken father.(All set within the roleplay of the Dream SMP)(1st Draft, will most likely update later)
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Kudos: 23





	Niki's Unfinished Symphony

Niki hadn’t seen Phil L’Manburg had faced its final defeat. In her eyes, she had said her final goodbyes to everyone she needed to - she had never any sort of loyalty towards him. Hell, she had never really felt anything towards him. Sure, he was Wilbur’s father, but with nothing but his ghost floating aimlessly through the lands of the SMP, nothing was tying her towards the man. 

Yet, here she was. Standing at the door of the secluded cabin that he resided in. She must’ve walked miles through the thick winter snow, with nothing but the shreds of Wilbur’s tattered cape to shield her from the blizzard. She had tried her best to redo the stitching along the hem, as well as trying to piece missing strands back together, but Wilbur knew her stitching skills were not on par with her baking abilities. He had spent long nights laughing beside her within the caverns of Pogtopia, as she hopelessly attempting to try and fix the holes that Tommy has snagged in his socks. She would always get so frustrated with herself, wondering what help could she be if she couldn't do something so mundane. But Wilbur would always give some sort of spiel about how it “adds character” or it “holds memories of their achievements”, and all her anger that had been pent up inside would cool over in a wave of laughter and euphoria. She chuckled to herself under the cloth of her cloak, wondering to herself when the last time she had let herself laugh like that. 

After hearing Wilbur’s voice lingering in her mind at the ruins of the missile test site, she couldn’t get him out of her head. It wasn't Ghostbur, she knew that for certain. Ghostbur would’ve been naive to her intentions and wouldn’t have given her excuse to looking for flowers a second thought. The sharp intuitiveness, the empathetic concern, were all too familiar to the man she once knew. Tubbo might’ve been a less than adequate president, but Wilbur’s love for his L’Manburg family was the glue that held the shambles of the nation together in its final days. Without him, even before it's final decimation, the country was nothing but shambles of what it was before. And without him, she had tried to take it all out on Tommy. 

She pounded at the dark oak door, with all of the anger slowly making it's way to her fist. Silence filled the front porched and oozed its way into the winter air. She was aware how late the hour was, but she also knew that Phil was not the type of man to sleep deeply through the night. Anger began to flow threw her veins, as tears began to congregate in the corner of her eyes, holding back her tears until all she could see to pair with the sound of the opening door was a pink blur. 

“Niki?”

The deep, monotone voice struck her back into reality, prompting her to wipe her eyes with the corner of her sleeve to regain her sight. Her face was still a bright shade of red, with small bags of smudged mascara lining her under eyes. 

Techno can’t recall a time where he had ever seen Niki so broken. Sure, she had been prone to getting emotional in the past, but it seemed as if she had been running on nothing but the energy of her rage.  
“Where is he?”

“Who, Ranboo?”

Niki paused for a moment. She hadn’t seen Ranboo in a while. Ranboo had always been one of her closest friends since Wilbur’s death, and yet somehow he had been able to completely fade away after the aftermath of the attack. She wondered how he had been doing, but quickly snapped back into reality. 

“To be honest I think he’s sleeping right now, but if sure he wouldn't be too bothered if we-”

“I'm not here for Ranboo!”

Her voice cracked like fire. Pure, unfiltered and roaring with power. Techno wasn’t used to this untapped rage from her. They had spent some time together fighting for Pogtopia, but even after he had betrayed her and the rest of his allies, he had never seen Niki so enraged by pure emotion. 

“What the hell is going on?”

Niki’s eyes quickly fell upon the man who had stepped out of the shadows behind her. Yet, despite his questionable nighttime attire, the only things she could focus on were the fractured wings, constantly bent open on his back. She could imagine the burn of the blast, as he used them to shield his son from the blast of the explosion. The sensation was set ablaze up her spine, which finally made her eyes fall on Phil’s disquieted expression.

“You. How could you do this? How could you live with yourself after what you did to him?!”

Techno took a few steps back, into the corner of the room. Sure, he could most likely kill both of them without breaking a sweat, but he knew better than to get in the middle of something like this.

Phil, on the other hand, had his expression quickly turned from one of concern to one that matched Niki’s. She hadn’t said his name, but she knew that she didn’t need to. 

Wilbur was the only thing that would bring these two here.

“Niki, I know you loved him. But I had no other choice. He had gone insane, because of the nation that he tried to build! That’s the thing that killed him!”

“Oh and sure, and the loaded gun just fired on its own, too! Seriously Phil, do you really think I’m going to buy into that whole ‘I did it for the greater good’ bullshit?!”

That final word made both Techno and Phil’s ears prick. They were no stranger to Niki swearing, usually at minor mishaps or slip-ups, but the venom in her tongue was something that was all too new.

“Do you really think that I wanted to kill him, Niki? He’s my son! He’s my flesh and blood, do you really think that was something I wanted to do?”

Blood boiled in Niki’s veins, as tears started to form in her eyes once again.

“Oh really? You’re going to give me that whole “flesh and blood crap? You and I both know that Wilbur couldn’t care less about that kind of stuff. He considered us all family. And what compassion did you ever show him? You turned up at his lowest point, and instead of trying to pick up the missing pieces, you took the easy way out! Like a coward!”

“Niki, that’s not fair-”

“Ohhh, I’m not done.” 

If looks could kill, Niki’s glare would’ve taken Phil’s one and only life in an instant. He could see his son’s ambitions blaring through her, catching fire and leaving nothing in her path.

“Wilbur did EVERYTHING for L’Manburg. He did everything for the people within it, because he realised long ago that the only thing that his nation stood for was love, and family. He didn’t care about the land, he cared about having a place to live with the people he treasured most. THAT is why he blew it up in the end. Because everywhere he turned, every time he tried to reach out for help, nobody was willing to turn against SCHLATT for him. Nobody was willing to prove to him that the family he had built was still there for him.”

Phil’s eyes wandered around the room, lost in his own frenzied realisation. 

“And you Phil, in a way, were his final chance. His final attempt to reach out, his final lifeline. He NEEDED you. He WANTED to be proven that he was wrong, that the people he had rallied still loved and cared for him, even without the superficiality of the territory. He wanted you to tell him, that no matter where they were, they would regrow, as long as they could do it together. That they would follow him until the end of time. And you know what Phil, you failed!” 

Phil stepped back from Niki in shock, knocking into the coffee table that stood beside him. He turned to glance at the picture frame that occupied the table, clutching a picture of young Wilbur and himself in his hands. He must’ve been about six or seven at the time that the photo was taken, as he clutched a drawing of what seemed to be a group of stickmen, holding hands in unity.

“Why are people in the world so mean?”

Phil didn’t know how to answer the question at the time. What do you even tell a seven-year-old, that has no concept of what life is like as an adult?

“Some people are just mean because they don’t understand. They don’t understand what it’s like to care about people as much as I care about you.”

“Well then when I grow up, I’m gonna make a world where everyone can be happy together, and where all the meanies can stay away! Then we can be happy together forever!”

His memories had stunned himself into silence. It was such a small thing, something any kid would ask at some point in their life, and yet it made everything so clear. Wilbur had never built L’Manburg in an attempt to spite dictators, nor to sell illegal drugs out of the back of a busted Hot Dog van.

“The thing that I built this nation for doesn’t exist anymore!”

He had built it for him. 

Silence fell on the room. Darkness overhung Phil’s head. There were no longer tears in his eyes, yet the stillness in his stance showed how fragile he was in that moment.

“What do you want from me, Niki?”

Niki was taken aback by the crack in his voice. She had always seen Phil as this pillar of strength, almost unbreakable, but it had felt like she had put a crack through his walls. 

“I am going to talk to Dream about how to bring Wilbur back. I am going to do everything it takes, whether it means giving up one of my lives or not. So when he’s back, and it’s a matter of when not if, I need YOU to step up to the plate. Be the father you not only failed to be, but be the father a man like him deserves.”

Nothing more needed to be said. Phil looked back up from the photo he had been staring at, if only to give a quiet and defeated nod. Niki headed for the door, only to be stopped by a warm embrace. Phil’s arms wrapped around her, with the skeleton of his wings laying around her like a cage.

“I promise.”

Niki shut the door behind her, seeing that the sun had just started to rise. She took in a deep sign of the crisp, morning air, before looking down at the stone that sat on her ring finger. It sparkled in the sun flight, reflecting into fragments on the layers of snow. 

“Es tut mir leid, meine Liebe.”

She slid the sing-off of her finger, before throwing it across the fields of snow. She knew that she didn’t deserve it, and that Puffy would’ve wanted her to let go.

So, leaving tracks through the snow with her leather boots, Niki set off on her quest to complete her own, unfinished symphony.


End file.
